Monthly Archives / July 2017

To be perfectly honest, I’m not exactly the go-to person you’d expect when it comes to the latest reviews of the hottest or the most hipster-ish cafe. In fact, I almost actively not review cafes, mostly because every other bloggers do it, and I’m more the bak kut teh and street food kinda guy.

Seraph Awaken, Klang

Well, sometimes those paths crossed, like how we ended up at one of the more interesting cafes in all of Klang Valley, right here at bak kut teh country, by the name of Seraph Awaken.

Seraph Awaken is located right across from Teck Teh, the oldest bkt joint in all of Malaysia. Like most shops around the old Klang train station area, this place has an ambiance that takes you back to the 80s, I was trying to find a radiofusion box on the wall, but alas, there wasn’t one.

ice drip coffee

What they have though, is a good selection of hand brew coffee with a good selection of beans sourced from around the globe. There are beans from Honduras, Ethiopia, India, El Savador, Guatemala, Mexico, and Columbia priced at RM 12-18 per cup.

The most popular choices here are those from their signature series – hibiscus coffee, Roselle coffee, coffee cube latte, and ice drip coffee.

For the afternoon, I tried their coffee cube latte, a glass of ice cubes made from coffee with a serving of chilled milk. The result is a an iced latte experience that can only be enjoyed slowly, which is quite fitting for a lazy Sunday afternoon.

hand brewed Columbian

If you’re looking for an afternoon of coffee that’s not of your usual espresso variety, head over to Klang and give this place a visit.

A couple weekends ago while trying to play catch up in tasting as many different bak kut teh restaurants in Klang as humanely responsible, I took up the offer from Zess, our resident Klang bkt expert, and met up for a sumptuous brunch at Ah Chee clay pot bak kut teh.

Ah Chee Bak Kut Teh, Bayu Tinggi, Klang

Ah Chee is of course, another one of Zess’ friends (this guy knows a lot of BKT operators). The restaurant is located at an end lot at the rather busy commercial area at Bayu Tinggi, Klang.

If you’re not familiar with Bayu Tinggi, well, it is basically located in between Bukit Tinggi and Port Klang, a place that’s frequent mostly only by Klang residents.

Ask anyone about Apple Strudel, and chances are they’re going to be talking about the famous Corica Pastries in Perth. Yeap, they do serve up an awesome apple strudel (I was fortunate to have a chance to try thanks to Val back in the years), I recently found that you can get an equally mean version of this delicious pastry right here in Klang Valley.

Fruity Cake and Bakery, Klang

More specifically, the relatively old and unassuming looking pastry in Klang by the name of Fruity Cake and Bakery.

Fruity Cake & Bakery is no stranger to the locals, the shop has been in operations for decades and serve mainly pastries, cakes, coffee, and a few selected Western dishes such as spaghetti, chicken chops etc.

I’ve been to this place a few times, and to be perfectly honest, the coffee is subpar, the Western dishes looked like it was from the 90s, and the interior decoration fits for a sitcom set up from 20 years ago.

best Apple Strudel I’ve had in the country

What is really awesome tho, is their apple strudel.

A portion goes for RM 6.75 and if you want the whole big box (around 5 pieces?), that’ll be close to RM 30.

It is worth every single cent tho! The pastry is crispy, and the filling is just done perfectly. It doesn’t really play second fiddle to the version at Perth in my opinion, I liked it just as much.

Izakaya, or Japanese gastro pub, is a relatively new type of Japanese restaurant in Malaysia. It is basically a pub with a proper bar and a full kitchen. You want to have a few beer or sake? Sure. You want a full meal? They’ve got that covered too.

Robataya Izakaya at Publika

Robataya Izakaya is a relatively new comer of such restaurant in KL. Located in Publika, they have a pretty extensive menu offering raw fish, ramen, rice dish, tempura, salad, grilled items, and more.

A week ago, we headed there on an invitation to try out what they’ve got to offer.

Okan Sashimi, they have air flown seafood too

We started with Okan Sashimi (RM 70), a sashimi platter with 5 different types of fresh seafood carefully arranged on ice. During our session, we had salmon, salmon belly, sweet shrimp, tuna, and I believe, butterfish.

While it may not be the super premium quality sashimi, (that’ll be their air flown, LIVE seafood as displayed by Haze) the portions were generous and it was actually quite a treat for the price.

Una Chizu Roll, Robataya Teppan Roll

For those wholikes rolls, The Robataya Teppan Roll (RM 28) is one you should try. There’s salmon inside, mayo, and grilled bacon on top! The taste was rather unique, and of course, anything is better with bacon.

Una Chizu Roll (RM 25) is a slightly more creative interpretation of your usual unagi roll, as they’ve decided to add cheese to the mix. I think the result was pretty good to be honest.

Salmon Oyako Sarada

Salmon Oyaka Sarada (RM 26) turned out to be one of our favorite dishes of the night. Laden with plenty of crispy salmon skin, the salad also have quite a generous portion of raw salmon in all those mustard leaves & cherry tomato in the rather awesome sesame dressing. I’d have this for lunch anytime.

While these are some pretty good skewers, the one that stood out the most was the momo tama, the egg was prepared to a rather soft consistency and for some reason worked really, really well with the chicken thigh. We gobbled that up pretty fast.

San Ten Zeppin – pork belly, bacon, Australian beef

If you enjoy BBQ, there’s only one way to improve the experience – by having it indoor, with air conditioning. The San Ten Zeppin sumiyaki (RM 55) gave us just that. There’re pork belly, bacon, and Australian beef. The meat are pretty thinly sliced so they cook rather quick, if you mess it up, it’s your own fault.

The cuttlefish should make for a very good side dish for beer, and while I thought the ribs were a bit dry, I did enjoy the olive shrimp quite a fair bit, the olive gave it a bit of sweetness that complements the spicy deep fried shrimp quite well.

Haze, Calvin, Haze, Sim

Overall, we did enjoy our dinner at Robataya. There are actually 2 other izakaya at Publika, and it’ll be tough to try to put a ranking on the list as they each have their strength and offers quite a different set of menu. You can’t realy go wrong if you pick Robataya for a meal, or some sake.

I don’t often accept reviews to cafes since there are really a dime a dozen out there, and for the most part, I like my street food & higher end restaurants (especially when I get to eat for free), but when Sue msg and told me about the Korean-run Table 9 Cafe & Kitchen at Bangsar, I thought why not?

Table 9 Cafe & Kitchen, Bangsar Jalan Telawi 3

As mentioned, the restaurant is slightly different from your run off the mill mid-market cafe with a proper kitchen. Eve, our host and co-owner, is Korean, and her partner, who is in charged of coming up with the menu, is another Korean. So while the menu may not try to claim that they are any different (and they don’t actively advertise it), Table 9 is actually pretty unique in its offering.

Well, for one, they actually have bingsu in their menu, but more on that later.

proper latte is always a good thing to have at a cafe

Any cafe worth its salt should be able to serve up a good cup of coffee, and in this regard Table 9 did not disappoint. The latte was as good as any I’ve had, no complaints from yours truly.

Table 9 Breakfast, with French Toast

Our first dish was the Table 9 Breakfast (RM 25) with optional French Toast (additional RM 1), and I think the French toast option is a must, they were so fluffy and just so.. good! The scrambled egg was top notch too. Other ingredients did not disappoint either, though I thought the sausage was rather average.

rosemary chicken Caesar salad, carbonara di cipolla in bread bowl

If you’re a salad sort of person, the Rosemary Chicken Caesar Salad (RM 24) is an option. It has romaine lettuce, cherry tomato, properly grilled chicken breast, cheese, but also a Caesar salad sauce that’s unlike any I’ve had, it’s rich and spicy, yes, it is spicy in a .. Korean sort of way. I do find it interesting and kinda like it.

We also try the Carbonara di Cipolla (RM 25) with optional bread bowl (RM 4.50), if you like cream pasta, you’d not be disappointed. Eve told us that in Korea, bread bowl with pasta is quite a common option anywhere. I think this can easily feed two pax who do not have huge appetite.

Caprese pasta with mozzarella, baked zucchini

Caprese (RM 29) is my favorite dish of the day, it’s a quite a simple tomato base pasta with mozzarella and truffle oil, and I thought the truffle oil adds quite a bit to the dish, and those big chunks of mozzarella , yums!

If light breakfast is your thing, baked zucchini (RM 19) with cheese and tuna may fit the bill. Perfect for those looking for low carb options, perhaps.

gorgonzola & maple panini, pizza jalapeno

Gorgonzola & Maple Panini (RM 22) is one of Eve’s favorite dishes in this restaurant, and it’s not hard to see why. The sandwich is savory and sweet in the right combination. With the side of fries, this makes for a full meal.

And as if we’re not totally stuffed by then, Pizza Jalapeno (RM 22) was served. This was a spicy pizza, thin, and they sure didn’t skim on the cheese, again it did not disappoint.

tomato bingsu

They have 8 different bingsu, or Korean shaved ice dessert here, with the weirdest of all being the tomato bingsu (RM 15), so naturally that’s what we ordered. The ice certainly milky and fully, and the tomato puree poured on top did make it that much more interesting. A little weird at first spoonful perhaps but you do get the hang of it, I liked it very much.

KY, Haze, & Eve the Korean co-owner

Overall I thought it was a very good brunch session at Table 9, with most of the dishes belong to the category of “I’d definitely won’t regret ordering”. We now know where to go for a good meal with a sweet bingsu ending.